The video posted on this blog purports to be of Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard,” but it’s mighty short and a little close up. If you’re a believer, it shows a cool “open in new tab” feature in the Finder and windows fade in and out. Is it real or is it Director?

The 10.4.7 Update is recommended for all users and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes for the following applications and technologies. It includes fixes for:
– preventing AFP deadlocks and dropped connections
– saving Adobe and Quark documents to AFP mounted volumes
– Bluetooth file transfers, pairing and connecting to a Bluetooth mouse, and syncing to mobile phones
– audio playback in QuickTime, iTunes, Final Cut Pro, and Soundtrack applications
– ensuring icons are spaced correctly when viewed on desktop
– determining the space required to burn folders
– iChat audio and video connectivity, creating chat rooms when using AIM
– importing files into Keynote 3
– PDF workflows when using iCal and iPhoto
– reliable use of Automator actions within workflows
– importing and removing fonts in Font Book
– syncing addresses, bookmarks, calendar events and files to .Mac
– compatibility with third party applications and devices
– previous standalone security updates
For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n303771.
For detailed information on Security Updates, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798.

Voice Over IP (VOIP) software Gizmo Project has released version 2.0 of their free software with smoother and more reliable calling. It’s like having a phone in your computer. New features include:
– Integration with the Asterisk office PBX
– Improved buddy list presence display
– Support for “Growl” notifications (Mac)
– Call-routing improvements for greater reliability
– Conference-calling improvements
– New low rates on International calls
– Improved audio quality for home networks

Apple’s own Boot Camp Public Beta allows you to install Windows XP SP2 onto an Intel Mac, giving you a dual-boot system. Parallels takes a slightly different approach with its Parallels Desktop for Mac, a virtual machine application. Instead of Boot Camp’s dual-boot approach, Parallels Desktop runs Windows XP directly on the Mac OS desktop (in what Parallels calls “near-native performance”)–allowing you to run both OSs simultaneously and switch back and forth seamlessly.

After making those screenshots and mentioning on making fake ones exclusively for evaluation/feedback, I’ve decided to make a small list of the things I want to see in Leopard (that I could make screenshots out of). I probably gave everybody a good idea as to what I want the Finder, Desktop Switching and Virtualization to look like, but here’s a list of everything else so far…

The conventional wisdom is that you need to buy a full license of Windows XP Pro SP2 (US$299) if you want to install Windows on your Mac in BootCamp.
This appears to contradict Microsoft’s long standing position that the Volume Licensed (VL) version of XP is an upgrade to Mac OS X when used with VirtualPC.
Last month Microsoft cleared this up with an official statement on the matter. Click through to see how Volume Licensed (VL) users can save themselves more than US$200…

Judging by my column the past couple of days you’d think that I didn’t like iChat AV or something. Au contraire! I only point out it’s deficiencies because I think that video conferencing is nothing short of revolutionary and I want Apple to invest more R&D into iChat so that more people will start using the tiny cameras embedded in their machines rather than less… Click through to read about a must-have plug-in for iChat AV that allows you to enhance your video chat with Quartz Composer effects.
Read the rest of the story on my ZDNet Blog: The Apple Core.

iChat was once the pantheon of instant messaging clients with its delicious aqua interface, no obnoxious ads (like AIM) and a simple ease-of-use that’s undeniable. But since the release of iChat AV (a.k.a. version 3) the application has added features at the expense of reliability.
First came the addition of audio chat, which was novel, then came the addition of video chat which had the potential to turn every Mac into a video phone. Everyone I know rushed out to buy Apple’s US$149 FireWire iSight camera (myself included) just for iChat AV, but it wasn’t long before the number of video icons in my buddy list started to dwindle.
Read the rest of the story on my ZDNet Blog: The Apple Core.

Adobe’s InDesign product manager Chad Siegel visited London this month to show a selection of new InDesign features to Macworld UK.

Using a MacBook Pro, Siegel offered a glimpse at a number of time-saving features that focus on designers, but stressed these to be no more than a small selection of some of the features the company is working on.

“We’re investing in workflow,” he explained, promising better integration between all the products to be shipped within Creative Suite 3. He even shows some of the powerful image import and editing features that will be made available within the next iteration of InDesign.

After a two month beta program Parallels has released the final version of Parallels Desktop for Mac. Some highlights:
– The highly successful multi-stage beta program included more than 100,000 users from 75 countries
– The product offers several key productivity features, like fullscreen/dual monitor mode, file sharing, cutting/pasting between OSes (via Parallels Tools, which is included with each copy), and can run any version of Windows (3.1-XP/2003), Linus, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation, and DOS
– The product now includes Parallels Compressor, a powerful disk management tool that can compress virtual hard drives by 50% or more. This is a very useful tool, esepcially if you’re working on a laptop with a relatively small hard drive. Compressor Server (retail price $179, compatible with Windows 2000, XP and 2003) is the specific version included with Desktop.
– Final retail price will be US$79.99 (a US$150 savings versus buying Parallels Desktop and Compressor Server separately). As a special thank you to the Mac community for all of their great support, we’ll be making the product available for only US$49.99 through July 15th.